Analysis of Distance & Separation
There is an emptiness
between Hemingway’s words
A hollow sound
that slides off the page
The space creates distance
as the Old Man wanted
From the reader
and voyeurs of pain
“Distance between himself and the day
he hauled in that great fish
“Distance from that last great battle
calling out from beyond his reach
“Distance from the arena, where the
horns got close but death got closer
“And distance from the many women
he tried to love and failed”
No matter how far he lived afield,
be it Paris, Havana, or Ketchum
In no place was there distance enough
or where his words could be safe
The separation and memory loss
became deafening and finally too much
As he gave in to the distance
—one last and final time.
(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)
Scheme | XX XX AX BX XX XX XB XX XX XX XX AX X |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Tetractys (24%) |
Metre | 111100 0111 0101 11101 010110 101110 1010 0111 100101001 110111 10111110 10110111 101001010 11111110 010101010 111101 110111101 1110010110 011111001 1111111 001001001 01100010011 11101010 110101 0100101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 766 |
Words | 134 |
Sentences | 2 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 |
Lines Amount | 25 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 46 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 10 |
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"Distance & Separation" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/47424/distance-%26-separation>.
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